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121 The Cairns
The background is black. ; Panel 1 Zane makes his way gingerly through the dark tunnel, still in his diving helmet and suit. His eyes are visible as two white circles. This section is even more heavily mottled with discoloration or moss, and the luminescent mushrooms grow thickly over the floor and walls of the tunnel. They grow in different shapes here, with several stems growing into one cap from which more stems and caps grow. There are also patches of tendril-like growths and clumps of small caps. The cord of his diving suit extends behind him up into the darkness. ; Panel 2. The tunnel in front of Zane appears to open into a larger space about eight feet in front of him. Framed by the circle of the tunnel is what looks like a tall pile of stones with a pattern of abstract red lines in the center. A faint blue light hovers a few inches over the pile of stones. The light gives off a long, thin horizontal gleam. There appear to be other piles of stone in the open space, although they're just silhouetted and hard to make out. There appears to be a source of light from within the open space, illuminating the left side of the pile of stones with hazy white light, but because of the way the tunnel curves, the light source can't be seen. Zane seems taken aback, with one arm out to the side and his fingers up in a gesture of surprise. ; Panel 3. A closer view of the pile of stones, or the cairn. It appears to be about four feet high and is made of several wide, thin stones piled on top of each other. The form is far too uniform and well-balanced to have been created by nature. There are smaller stones near the top, over which the small blue light hovers. Seen closer, there's one larger light surrounded by a nebulous cloud of smaller, fainter lights. The pattern of abstract red lines reaches from the base to the top of the stones, and appears to have been painted on. The pattern doesn't resemble anything, but could be described as a tall, thin X shape with several extra lines coming from the center and from the ends of the X, or perhaps as an extremely abstract tree-like shape. It seems to be the same pattern as was on the creature that Zane saw on his trip back from the hospital in Book 1. A couple of the other cairns are visible, and although the red pattern is not visible on them they have the glowing blue lights at the tip. There are a few small stones on the floor, but aside from that the floor is perfectly flat, and there's no green patches or mushrooms on the floor or on the walls. The light source to the left causes the cairns and the small rocks on the ground to cast long shadows to the right. ; Panel 4. Zane walks into the open space, looking to his right at the closest cairn. There are two other cairns in front of him. Behind him is the area where the mushrooms and green patches on the rock give way to the clean, craggy walls of the open space. There are at least nine figures about an inch or two high drawn in black on the wall behind Zane. They seem to have been placed randomly, and look like they could be stylized humans. ; Panel 5. Zane turns to look to the left. One hand is curled into a fist, and the other is out in front of him in a gesture of surprise. His face is mostly in shadow, but his eyes are two white circles, and one eyebrow appears to be raised. ; Panel 6. Zane tugs sharply on the cord coming from his helmet, sending vibrations up the line. His pose is unchanged, but his eyes are now tiny white circles as he looks at whatever was to the left.